Both chambers of the Alaska Legislature have approved a resolution stating its support for Canadian independence and opposing “restrictive trade measures or tolls” that would affect commerce between Alaska and Canada.
House Joint Resolution 11, which would be sent to President Donald Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and other top officials in both countries, implicitly rejects Trump’s call to make Canada the 51st state in the United States.
“Alaska recognizes the importance of a strong and sovereign nation of Canada and firmly supports Canada’s right to self-determination, national security, and economic independence,” the resolution states in part.
The Alaska Senate approved that language in a 13-6 vote on Monday with one lawmaker excused absent. The state House voted 33-4 on March 24 to approve a slightly different version.
Resolutions are statements of opinion by the Legislature and not subject to a governor’s veto.
The resolution will return to the House for a concurrence vote before becoming final.
Rep. Chuck Kopp, R-Anchorage and the resolution’s sponsor, said he believes there is good support in the House for the amended language.
The Senate’s vote came a day before Trump met Carney at the White House and declined to back down from claims that Canada should be “the 51st state.”
The Trump administration has prepared a large number of tariffs against Canadian imports, and the Canadian government has preemptively enacted retaliatory measures.
In British Columbia, the government has introduced legislation that could lead to tolls on traffic traveling between Alaska and the Lower 48.
In floor debate, Senate Majority Leader Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, noted the amount of trade that goes across the border between Alaska and Canada.
“The purpose of HJR 11 is to remind Alaskans that we have an important relationship with Canadians, those shared values of Arctic partners, our relationship as good neighbors, and keeping our partnership with Canada alive isn’t just good policy, it’s critical to the way we live,” she said.
Parts of Alaska are unconnected to each other without a trip through Canada. Fresh produce, dairy products and other perishable goods are shipped to Alaska via Canada.
Alaska Natives and Canadian First Nations are connected across the border, the resolution notes, and even the region’s sports teams compete together. The resolution observes that curling teams in Whitehorse and Fairbanks have been playing against each other for decades.
All of the votes against the resolution came from members of the Senate’s Republican minority caucus.
Senate Minority Leader Mike Shower, R-Wasilla, alleged that the resolution is more about speaking against Trump than speaking in support of Canada. The resolution “is kind of a slap in a certain direction,” he said.
He suggested that if Alaska is serious about improving relations with Canada, it should consider reviving the state’s liaison program, which used to have an Alaska delegate communicating with Canada and a Canadian in Alaska to work on cross-border issues.
Sen. Mike Cronk, R-Tok, represents a broad district that abuts the Canadian border along the Alaska Highway. He supports Trump and opposed the resolution.
“This really doesn’t change anything,” he said of the resolution. “We still respect each other, we still support each other, and the resolution is not going to change that.”
“It’s just poking at Trump,” said Sen. James Kaufman, R-Anchorage, after the vote.
He said Canada isn’t pulling its weight in NATO, and that’s reason for concern.
“If you look at their contributions to defense, they’re lagging way behind,” he said.
Sen. Jesse Kiehl, D-Juneau, represents northern Southeast Alaska, including the towns of Skagway and Haines, which are connected by road to Canada but not to the rest of Alaska.
“My constituents are asking for it,” he said of the resolution.
“When there are conflicts going on, when someone else has issues, and it starts to impact the relationships we do have, have long had, it’s worth it for us to reaffirm those relationships, to reach back out and say the close ties we’ve always had are good. We should continue them, because there’s real damage going on right now,” he said.
He gave an example: Over the winter, a restaurant in Haines burned down. Its owner later told Kiehl that they had good news from their insurance company and would get a full payout.
“I said, ‘Wonderful. Are you going to rebuild?’ And the answer was, ‘No.’” Kiehl said.
The owner said that customers from Canada had represented a significant portion of their income, and with Canadians shunning Alaska, it wasn’t worth reopening.
Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, represents the town of Hyder, which is almost split in two by the Canadian border. Hyder’s children go to school in Stewart, British Columbia. Its residents shop in Stewart.
He voted in support of the resolution and said that “the boys in Washington, D.C.,” might be seeing problems with Canada, but he’s not.
“We’re not having problems with our border here,” he said.
In an emailed statement, Yukon Premier Ranj Pillai congratulated the Alaska Legislature for its action.
“The Yukon and Alaska benefit from strong people-to-people connections, close economic ties, and a shared appreciation for the realities of life in the North. Yukoners appreciate the efforts by the Alaska legislature to ensure that these important cross-border connections are understood by federal leaders on both sides of the Canada-US border,” he wrote.
“While Canadians will always stand up for our sovereignty, our economy, and our way of life, we hope that Americans will continue to come visit the Yukon and experience all that our incredible territory has to offer.”
Murray Lundberg, a Yukon resident and member of the Order of Yukon, is an outspoken critic of Trump on social media and said the resolution is unlikely to help matters because Canadians remain scared of their treatment by American border guards.
“It’s not a minority opinion, and I don’t know why it’s not being mentioned more. People are soft-pedaling around this, and it’s a big issue,” he said.
In March, a Yukon-born woman was imprisoned by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for two weeks in squalid facilities before being released with no charges filed.
“I love visiting Skagway and Haines, but you know, it’s just not going to happen,” Lundberg said.
“Friends do not convince friends to put themselves in a dangerous situation. So I really object to (messages like the resolution) because that’s what it is. That’s not what a friend would do.”
• James Brooks is a longtime Alaska reporter, having previously worked at the Anchorage Daily News, Juneau Empire, Kodiak Mirror and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. This article originally appeared online at alaskabeacon.com. Alaska Beacon, an affiliate of States Newsroom, is an independent, nonpartisan news organization focused on connecting Alaskans to their state government.
